Marina Abramović, a major figure in body art, began her career after studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade and Zagreb. From her earliest performances, she explores the limits of human endurance, highlighting the fragility and inherent fears in our behaviors. From 1969 to 1976, she carried out solo performances, placing the female body at the heart of her work and seeking to involve the audience in a sharing of energy, essential to her artistic approach.

Influenced by Buddhist philosophy, Abramović considers art as a means of reconnecting with primitive rituals. Her works, which require intense concentration and preparation, evoke ecstatic religious practices, as illustrated in ‘Lips of Thomas’ (1975). With her partner Ulay, she further explores the endurance and violence inflicted on the body in their joint performances between 1976 and 1988.

The 1980s mark a symbolic evolution of her work, culminating in ‘The Lovers’ (1988), where she and Ulay each traverse 2,000 kilometers of the Great Wall of China before meeting. In 1997, her work ‘Balkan Baroque,’ a critique of the horrors of the war in former Yugoslavia, earned her the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. Her art, seen as a spiritual purification, opposes media violence, seeking redemption through pacification. Her documentary ‘The Artist is Present’ (2010) has also been widely acclaimed, affirming her impact in the world of contemporary art.